Pleo Dinosaur!

News, updates, and feedback for the new portal devoted to the Ugobe Pleo dinosaur; the adorable new artificial life form that is taking the robot world by storm. Portal status, maintenance messages, ideas, and feedback will be reported here along with other Pleo robot news.

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

[UPDATE] It looks like Pleo got bumped due to a breaking news announcement. Good Morning America is going to try for Friday now but it's still "to be determined". I'll update you if I get any further news.

Pleo does his first interview tomorrow on national TV!

I just received news that Pleo is going to be on Good Morning America tomorrow. If you have a Tivo or VCR and you record it, please let me know as I would like to post the a copy of the video on my web site. This national news appearance is sure to make getting a Pleo before the holidays much worse so if you are considering preordering one now would be a good time.

I also got word that some vendors like Hammacher Schlemmer are running low on inventory. I point them out in particular because they have the lowest price on Pleo and more importantly, a product lifetime guarantee that works out to be about 9 years on a Pleo. In their case the warranty is free and they are also offering free shipping right now. But in any case, I would strongly urge you to get an extended warranty from the vendor or store you get one from.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Ugobe Sends Out "First Hatch" 30 Day Shipment Notices

The Ugobe online store sent out the "30 day shipment" notices today to their "First Hatch" customers today. This is further proof positive that Pleo is shipping soon. The first paragraph of the notice read:

"Dear Pleo First Hatch Order Customer,

This notice is to confirm that your Pleo First Hatch order from Ugobe.com will be shipped within the next 30 days. To ensure you will be among the first to receive Pleo, we will be flying it in direct from the factory via Fed Ex. If your mailing address, credit card information, or billing address has changed, please contact Customer Support now, and let us help you modify your order."

This is exciting news indeed, not only for the First Hatch customers, but for all Pleo customers since this means the mass shipment should be soon to follow.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

Pleo Dinosaur - Ugobe Announcement "Pleo will be in homes by the holidays"

Ugobe sent out a mass E-mail to readers on its update list, updating them on Pleo's production status and anticipated ship date. The wonderful news is that Pleo is officially in production and Ugobe states that those who have preorders from a retailer in the USA will receive their Pleos before December 25, 2007. In other words, they will get their Pleo by the holidays.

People who have preorders directly with the Ugobe store should get their 30 day shipment notifications before Thanksgiving. The E-mail also talked about enhancements to their official user site, Pleo World, that will allow people to connect with other Pleo owners online and share content with them. An easter egg was dropped with Ugobe saying that there will also be a surprise behavior mode for Pleo owners to download and try out on their Pleos.

Here's the text of their E-mail:

Dear Pleo Fans,

GREAT NEWS! Pleo is in production this month! For those of you who have pre-ordered Pleo from the UGOBETM store, your 30-day shipment notification will arrive before Thanksgiving. Anyone who has pre-ordered Pleo from any US retailer will receive their baby dino before December 25th. You can look forward to the squeals of delight from family and friends, the "what-the-heck?" response from your pets, and all the fun of getting to know Pleo yourself. Also in December, enhancements to Pleoworld.com will enable you to connect and share experiences with other owners and download a surprise "mode" for Pleo!

We also want to tell you some things about your Pleo:

Pleo's skin is delicate and as you pet him, his paint develops a wear pattern.

Perfecting the skin has been one of the most challenging aspects of developing Pleo, and we continue researching ways to make the paint adhere with the best possible results. Because our warranty does not cover regular wear and tear of skin, we wanted to give you a sense of what the wear may look like and offer you pointers on how to minimize wear. Here at UGOBE we simply let the wear happen - and pet him and love him all day long.

Now for an update on Pleo's software.

The architecture of the Life OS software provides for Pleo to evolve and learn - an exciting breakthrough that holds much promise for the future of robotic life forms. Pleo interacts with you fully -- moving organically, expressing emotion, autonomously exploring and responding to the world around him. However, the software that will be in Pleo when he ships this year allows for only subtle shaping of personality and temperament. For example, based on how much you interact with Pleo, he will be more sociable --- inclined to stay put and wait for more petting. If you consistently leave him be, he will prefer to walk away and explore his environment. However, this does not achieve our goal of "Pleo learning and developing a unique personality based largely upon how he is raised."

Free software updates next year on Pleoworld.com will enable this previously announced feature. As the development team says, "It's already in the code!" With efforts this fall being focused on supporting the external charging battery model, the development team needs more time to bring Pleo's capabilities to fruition. As with any new technology platform, the ability to expand capabilities through software upgrades is part of the promise and excitement.

Pleo is a magical product, and we are so excited to finally be sharing him with you. Nonetheless, we want you to make an informed decision about your purchase. Those of you who are the first owners of Pleo will be integral to UGOBE's future work. Your experience and insights will help shape our software development in 2008 and we are glad you are on this journey with us.

Thank you as always for your continued enthusiasm and support! Pleo is on his way!

Monday, November 5, 2007

Pleo Dinosaur - Make Pleo Your Pawn!

This one is for all my fellow techies who will be getting Pleos (like myself). Pleo will be customizable in several different ways such as changing Pleo's sounds, etc. This post is talks about Pawn. Pawn is a special programming language with only one purpose. To allow manufacturers like Ugobe to add an easy language to their product for programming purposes. Pawn by itself isn't very useful, but when integrated into a complex robotic toy like Pleo or some other embedded systems platform, it becomes incredibly useful indeed.

Ugobe wants to allow the more technically inclined people the ability to modify Pleo's behavior and other fascinating attributes in an easy, approachable way. If people had to understand Pleo and all his intricate software that is part of the Ugobe's LifeOS, it could take years before anyone was savvy enough to start customizing Pleo with scripts. Also, there would only be a tiny fraction of the customer base with the skills necessary for such modifications, compared to the much larger group of people that can master a simplified scripting language. Pawn gives Ugobe the ability to expose the interesting bits of Pleo that people will want to play with, and hide the more nasty and treacherous programming problems behind the veil offered by the scripting language. There will be many people that will never do Pawn scripting with Pleo. However, by offering an easy to use Pawn based scripting language there will be a large group of people that will do Pawn scripting, and in turn will create tons of interesting Pleo modifications that rest of the Pleo owners can enjoy.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Here's my favorite video in the Pleo World webisode series titled "Behind The Scenes : The Making Of Pleo". It's called "Pleo On The Street" and it shows a veritable cuddly army of Pleos taking over an unsuspecting town in Idaho. People are incapable of keeping their hands off of Pleo and Pleo is more than happy to entertain. See for yourself: